Upper Pec Development

0:00Dad, this show is dedicated to you. Unlike every sentimental movie, I know you cannot hear me because you have gone to be with Jesus, which is why I have chosen this time to dedicate this show to you. First of all, I cannot describe what a blessing it has been that for over 50 years through good times and bad, through difficulty and life's greatest joys. What a true honor and blessing it has been for you to have a son like me. The theological prowess, the humility, the strength, all these I have been able to give you and it brings me joy because nothing beats a son's love for his father. I will never forget your wise commentary and ecclesiastes where he emphasized the frivolousness

1:00and emptiness of vanity, vanity of vanities, meaningless. I think of that wisdom every time I cling and bang in the weight room so that I can achieve near perfection in my upper pec development. Now that you have gone to be with Jesus, it is bitter sweet. It is bitter because I will miss you, but it is also sweet because now as you join the glory of God with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven, you finally agree with my interpretation of the prodigal son. Look on your face, most of them priceless when you gathered around the multitude that no one could count, who have not heard about the butcher that backed into the meat grinder. Remember your last words to me, Dad? You said to me, Carl, why don't more people subscribe, rate, and to review the clerical heirs podcast?

2:01Well, don't worry, Dad. You're with Jesus, remember? Leave it to the trusty hands of the clerical heirs army. So Dad, this one's for you. Enjoy the feast. I put a good word in for you. I will be sure to wave when I pass by to a higher level of glory. Recorded live at Tox and Tasting Studios, it's the clerical heirs podcast. The podcast that shows you what's behind the collar. Let's go. From the Tox and Tasting Studios, this is the clerical heirs podcast. The podcast that shows you what's behind the collar. So as you just heard in the opening, Dad, this podcast episode is dedicated to you. Vickery, you don't know anything about those dedications, do you? I don't know anything about the dedications. Ah, well, here's one of them, for example, that you can listen to. See, we've been doing this the whole time. Well, I'm sorry, Pete, nevermind. I have to edit this before I leave.

3:02Okay, this has to be a little to no editing situation. All right, so busy times, Lent, I have lots to do to get ready for the upcoming week. I will be in Florida as this is airing, as you heard from the opening. Peter's grandfather, my father was called to glory. And so would you say, Peter, I would say without my father, this podcast wouldn't exist. I'm just going to. Also without my father, this podcast wouldn't exist. That's true. So thanks, Dad. And I'll be honest with my father, probably would have been a pastor, you know, makes sense. Yeah, a lot of things that my life would be way different without my dad. Before I said that, it's always been kind of a mantra of mine, Vickery. Is that right? Yeah. How very deep, very lots to unpack there. Yeah.

4:03So Vickery, you're getting your chance of preaching a little bit more on short notice. You're within, you're going to preach Wednesday, Sunday, and Wednesday. That guy is a little stressed out. I haven't even had time to talk to you about that. Oh, just a little bit, but we'll be all right. You buy it. Be all right. I, so what are you preaching on, Vickery? Let's just, let's just do the gospel lesson. It's going to be short episode listener. I'm sorry. That's just what it is. In fact, you should be thankful for us because we're dedicated and still giving you an episode when we really don't want to. That's commitment. It's commitment. I think everybody that's in this podcast right now kind of just doesn't want to be here right now. And to be honest, sometimes that makes for a great episode. Top 12 reasons why we don't want to do this tonight. Number 12, my dad died. All right.

5:09You know, Vickery, I can, as you hurt, you will hear, because I haven't actually recorded this in this opening that, you know, it's okay to have a sense of humor about it. Mm-hmm. I'm listening to this. As I, like you said, I haven't heard it yet. I'm out anxious to listen to this. Yes. Because I have no idea how these go. It's a, would you call it a deep cut from the older, we used to do more of these dedications when I had more time, way back when I had one church. Yeah. Those were the days. Those were the days. That's a, you know, I had a, I had a little more creative energy for me to do that. I just direct a lot of my creative energies in other ways, but I still love doing the show just because I get to see my son off a lot. We'd probably gladly say, ah, if we could just, FaceTime once in a while, that wouldn't be bad.

6:10We could probably figure that out. Right. Top 12 reasons why Peter doesn't want to be here tonight. His grandfather died. This should be important to you, Vickery, because without my father, you know, I wouldn't have been your Vickery supervisor. You'd be somewhere in Nebraska trying to find your way through. That's right. Nebraska. We're calling you now or worse. Oklahoma. There's another deep cut, Pete, I gotta get a billboard there someday. I know. Right. We had an idea way back when of just picking some tiny random radio station in some random little town and buying like $1,000 worth of ads, where we just advertise a clear players podcast. I never came to fruition for a day because someone wants to in honor of my father, like

7:11to buy $1,000 worth of ad at some random radio station. Where could they get ahold of us, Vickery? I mean, just to be clear, a couple of things have happened this the last couple of months. One, I overcame cancer and two, my dad died. So please, listener, for my sake, you can email us at feedback at clerical errors.org. We have a Facebook page, Facebook.com, a little more passion, my dad died. We have a Facebook page, Facebook.com slash clerical errors podcast. That helps. That helps. We have a Twitter at me, at clerical errors, p, p, you know, Vickery, I feel like you're being a little too sarcastic. My grandfather just died. Take the series and we have a Patreon, you know, Vickery, if you're going to be a pastor, you're going to have to learn to deal with death, okay? So come on, finish up, you got this.

8:16Patreon at, or, yeah, it's now I lost my whole, yes, memorials can go to Patreon. Patreon at patreon.com slash clerical errors podcast. And listener, if you have any favorite, because my, my father has actually been mentioned a few times, a favorite memory you'd like to share, please do so. That's really Vickery, he, he is probably would have been the OG clerical error, like this fits in, he would fit in directly with the show. So because listener, if you've never met my father, Peter can assure you, if you've listened to the show, you've kind of met my father, so, all right, so Vickery, did you finish? Uh, yes, I think so. You know, my father died, and he just been laughing this whole time. Man, you're definitely, you have to learn to deal with this little bit of Vickery. You can complain about this all you want, but my grandfather actually just died on my birth

9:19day. Yeah, I'm sorry, we don't mean to make you 10th reason why we don't want to be doing the episode tonight, because we make Vickery feel uncomfortable. My dad had cancer, okay. Yes, squamous on my life, yeah, squamous on my squamous, squamous, is that how you pronounce it? Something like that. Yeah, it's gone now, but I beat it. I almost thought about making Vickery make a, wait, right, make a shirt for us for the show, but Peter did. You think we should put that on the listener? If you want to see the shirt that Peter made in honor of my having a small piece of skin cancer removed from my leg, please, you can e a mask that maybe we'll do it. Maybe I'll just post this unpromptu on the Facebook and see what happens.

10:21No, don't, don't, don't, because without context. There's a thing, right, that many might just stumble across that on Facebook, isn't that funnier though? Yeah, there'll be some random quick star in Southern Iowa and we're praying for you. Just imagine what the next district pastor's conference would be like when they also see that. He looks so malnourished. I thought it was just a gluten thing. What do you preach it on, Vickery? I preach gone the gospel from Luke, chapter 11, verse 14 through 28. Now he was casting out a demon that was mute when the demon had gone out, the mute man spoke, and the people marveled, but some of them said he cast out demons by beausable,

11:26the Prince of demons, while others to test him kept seeking from him a sign from heaven. But he, knowing their thoughts, said to them, every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and a divided household falls. And if Satan is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? For you say that I cast out demons by beausable. And if I cast out demons by beausable, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore, they will be your judges. But if it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, and the kingdom of God has come upon you, when a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are safe. But when one's stronger than he attacks him and overcomes him, he takes away his armor in which he trusted and divides his spoil. Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me, scatters. When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through the waterless places,

12:27seeking rest, and finding none, it says, I will return to my house from which I came. And when it comes, it finds the house swept and put in order, and it goes and brings seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there. The last state of that person is worse than the first. As he said these things, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, bless it is the womb that bore you and the breast at which you nursed. But he said, bless it, rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it. All right, so, Vicar, since we haven't talked about this yet, what are your thoughts? How far have you gone? I've read the text in context. All right. Let's go! So, we've made some progress. See, I'm rubbing off on you, Vicar.

13:27Yes, teacher is proud. Very good. I try. So, I think the direction I want to go with this is really more towards the, when you buy into strong man, or when you, excuse me, when you, when a strong man guards his own palace, but when a stronger man comes and overcomes him, takes away his armor and divides his spoil and use that as kind of the controlling metaphor for this idea that blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it. The idea being that without Christ, we are in the kingdom of, call it Satan, call it sin. And the kingdom of evil, or outside of the kingdom, you're gathering, or scattering, you're gathering, or scattering. Yes. And that'd be a good farm illustration, really, if you think about it. That would require too much brain power to come up with that. I think my dad would have appreciated that.

14:28Why don't you use your, your 24 years of rural parish ministry and come up with one? Well, you see, let me teach you about farming, Vicar. Now keep going. So, so some thoughts. One is a very interesting discussion, one about Jesus' claim of who he is, right? Also interesting claims about, or discussion about vigilance, you know, how, you know, you think, oh, I've kind of overcame this issue, or something like that, or dealt with this, in a sense, demon, sinfulness, separation from God, and then, and then without continuing in Christ's word, and that kind of thing, it will show up again, often worse. Right. Also, I kind of, I always think about when you think of how the devil and the demons

15:32are looking, searching through waterless places, and I think I think it's kind of interesting how, how water and spirit come together, how that's kind of like an opposite of baptism, you know, the Holy Spirit comes through the, the, the water, I don't know, I was wondering if that, there was a connection there. Anyways, so you have, you have that whole discussion, and, you know, reason why this is really apropos for Lent is because you have one clear understanding of who Jesus is, his overpowering the demons, two, you have a very interesting discussion, and you have about evil, and whether it's for or against, or whether it's a kingdom divided, or gathering or scattering, and self introspection, really, on God's law of seeing, you know, how, how are you left unguarded?

16:33You know, what, what are the, the doors that you're an attempt, inattentive to God's word that may be finding a door for these things? Oh, or he just is, like I said earlier, just a clear discussion on Jesus and his overpowering of all of those things, that he drives him out with the finger of God, and as he says, and if he does, how does Jesus word it, drive him out, then the kingdom, and the kingdom of God has come upon you. Yeah. So, so I think, so you're, you're thinking that you're going to focus on the, the, the foreign against, right, and the word of God, right? Yeah, to really bring out the idea that, you know, the stronger man when he attacks, he doesn't do so with the cooperation of those who are under the, the strong man, he does, so he attacks him, he overcomes him, and he takes away the armor. So thinking through that, well, how is it, then, what, what is it we are to trust in

17:38in these latter days? We don't trust in our own ability to, I'm doing a study on Christian religions. We just finished up Catholicism, and so it's sticking in my mind. We don't trust in our ability to cooperate with Christ and work with Him. We trust in Him who promised to overcome sin death in the devil, doing so, making that promise to us in the word of God. That's why later on he says, blessed, rather those who hear the word of God and keep it, blessed are those, essentially, who have faith in the promise that I'm making to you yet. He will, he is the stronger man who comes and sets free the, those under Satan. And I would say this too, you know, do you notice how in this whole discussion, how it's like about Christ overcoming the power of, of the demons, and then he points directly to God's word? It shows that the power of the demons ultimately is one of information and lie, and that which

18:43then goes to show, that which overcomes it is the word of God. And so a lot of times when people think of the demonic or the power of the devil, they think of other things like power and that he can do all these things and, and, and bend space and time or whatever, all those things that people attribute to him from that kind of point of view. But the fact that he is overpowered by Christ in his word, and that is what it means to be blessed in all of this, that Christ does his work through the word, even, even overcoming the demons. All right, good job, Vicar. Keep up the good work. We'll have something to preach on Sunday. That's kind of what I think I'm going to preach. Well, more than that, but. I hope so. Just good Vicar. Why am I so mean to you? I don't know. I am. So Peter, help me. How can I be nicer to this guy?

19:43He does a good job. I don't know. Well, I think to give first, you have to be given to so. It's kind of been a principle of my. Just give it take situation, you know. If you're saying I have to give more, and then I will receive from him, hey, my grandfather just died. Yeah. I'll put on my son. He's mourning, Vicar. Don't put it on him. I know. I shouldn't. He's had to deal with my grandfather dying and then his dad overcoming cancer. It's been through a lot. And moving. So. All right. How are we doing on time? 18 minutes. Well. Yeah. We're going to make it a short episode. Peter and I are tired. If you wish you had more show, we have an entire catalog for you to listen to. How many episodes, Pete? 361 other episodes. Right. 361 episodes. So perhaps you've missed one or if you've listened to all of them, go listen to your favorite

20:46relive. I kind of like the surround, the beginning of the surround sound one. That's one of my favorites. But what's your favorite episode, Vicar? Yes. Peter, can you just amplify that side for me? Just once. Yeah. You got it, man. That should be my ringtone. Just Vicar. Whenever he texts us like, I'd not me do it. You do it. Just whenever he texts with I hear. Yeah. There you go. All right. We're getting nowhere. Thank you for listening. This is Bullhagen. This is Vicar. Tell me your grandfather not die on your birthday. Thank you for joining us. This podcast is available on iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, or wherever else you get your podcasts. Questions, thoughts, concerns. You can contact us on Facebook at Facebook.com slash clerical airs podcast on Twitter at clerical airs p for podcast or email us at feedback at clerical airs.org.

21:50Thanks for listening to clerical airs. See you next time.